1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus, a white balance control method, and a white balance control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic still cameras, which belong to image pickup apparatuses, are, in some cases, provided with an auto white balance function of automatically setting the white balance of an image to be picked up.
For auto white balance, it is necessary to determine which part of an image to be picked up is white. However, if a subject contains a color similar to white such as a light blue or a flesh color, then at the white determining stage, there is a possibility that such a color similar to white may be determined as real white. Accordingly, in such a situation, what is called a “drawing effect” may occur in which a white subject appears bluish, while a red subject appears light red. Consequently, a liquid crystal monitor may display through images with the drawing effects. Of course, if a shutter of the electronic camera is depressed in such a situation, a recorded image has an inappropriate white balance.
The term “through images” as used herein means images sequentially picked up by image pickup means and displayed on the monitor to allow a user to check the subject while the image pickup device is in an image pickup standby state.